the “before” house tour

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, to say the least! We signed the papers and closed on our dream “starter home,” painted a whole bunch that weekend, packed up the apartment and moved in on Thursday [with the help of my wonderful in-laws], unpacked and organized throughout the next week until my parents came in on Thursday [and they kicked butt making the house look good and got the yard looking a million times better], and then we threw a party! More on the party in another post, but I am so thankful for all the help we’ve had and relieved that life is settling down and we can focus on the house!

So, here’s the tour of the house from the inspection.

Living/Family Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Basement

Master Bedroom

Second Bedroom

Upstairs Bathroom

The previous owners had really done some of the heavy lifting when it came to bringing the house up to 2016 standards. The kitchen is cute, open and bright. The colors were [mostly] neutral. The upstairs bathroom was recently renovated with Carrara marble tile, a new pedestal sink and large shower/tub. Most people could easily live in the house as it was! Sadly, architects aren’t most people.

Really, the only thing I really wanted to do with before moving in was paint the interior one color. The house is small [technically 968 SF, although that does not include the basement], and I wanted it to feel as big as possible. Painting the interiors one neutral light color creates cohesion between the spaces and makes the house appear larger. It also serves as more of a backdrop for artwork and furniture as opposed to taking center stage.

After a few quotes that just seemed too high for a task I knew hubs and I could tackle (one for $7,000 that included ceilings and trim on all three floors, and one for $3,600 that was just the top two floors and no trim), we decided we’d do this job ourselves. I selected Sherwin William’s Gray Screen 7071. We got a big 5 gallon bucket of it [make sure to sign up for their Paint Perks for sales!] and all the paint gear we could find at Home Depot [including this bad boy, an amazing paint sprayer!] and we went to town.

With the paint sprayer we really had to tape everything off and cover anything that did not want a nice gray tone on it. Trim and ceiling were the main focus to avoid. We had a little learning curve with the sprayer…practice on your biggest wall to get the technique right! We found that about 12-15 inches out in 2 foot sections really covered the wall. I then went over it with a roller for an even texture. You may think that was an unnecessary step, or that the sprayer was not good enough on its own, but believe me when I say that it is honestly so easy to roll over the sprayed paint and not need to get an evenly coat your roller. It definitely saved us some backaches! Note: do not get Home Depot’s cheapest rollers. They shed, and you have to go around with a tweezer to pull out the roller fibers!

After a night of prep, day of painting, day of just me painting, then another day of painting, we finally [mostly] had done the kitchen, side hall, dining room, living room, stair well and upstairs hall. As for the Master Bedroom, Second Bedroom, and upstairs Bathroom? Welp, glad the previous owners liked various shades of light blues because I’ve decided they just aren’t that bad right now!